Fantasy sports have weathered the courtroom and lived to see another day. According to the North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology, the case of Humphrey v Viacom went to federal court in New Jersey to determine whether fantasy sports constitute gambling. The defendents sought to recover their entry fees as "gambling losses." The court ruled that participants paid an entry fee in exchange for goods and services and were therefore not recoverable as gambling losses.
Fantasy football began in 1962 when men associated with the Oakland Raiders were looking for something to pass the time on long road trips. It quickly spread to the bars in Oakland where it remained a localized phenomenon until it was picked up in the internet craze. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, between fifteen and eighteen million people had a fantasy team last year. The number of players increases roughly seven to ten percent each year.
This is the question I pose today: Are fantasy sports gambling? The criteria courts have used in the past to determine gambling is to apply a standard of whether the activity is "skilled" or "unskilled." (meaning is this truly a game of chance?) There is an argument to be made that research and time commitments are rewarded with a prize. I have also lost in a league to a ten year old who never changed his team and who lost interest half way through the draft. To fill his team, we gave him every fifth player on the list and he wiped the floor with us all season. Though people can lose or win money, they do not seem to view fantasy sports through the seedy lens of other forms of gambling. Is it less of a sin because it occurs through the "clean" medium of a laptop instead of through a bookie's soiled hands?
1 comment:
you're welcome david.
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